SLSL Intro "It is only fair to warn ..."

[arthur bryant]

Davemarc wrote: 

  I'm struck by Pynchon's suggestion that his early
published stories be used
  as platforms for learning about the craft of fiction
through the examination
  of their flaws, or at least their unevenness.  I'm
not sure whether I could
  name another author who has made a similar offer in
a preface to a
  collection--though I suspect there must be some who
have.  His position is
  consistent with the title of the book, of course.

  d.

There are lots of these. Perhaps we can come up with a
few. Might prove interesting. 


Joseph Conrad was a bit of a Slow Learner too.
Difficult youth and lots of languages to learn.  This
famous Preface (now called a Preface its publishing
history is a yarn all its own that I've not the time
to go into at the moment) is not quite what we get
from Pynchon, but since Conrad is one of P's most
influential early anxieties I thought it might be
worth reading. And, I can't help but continue with my
own yarn on ships, fools, solidarity and that weight
that keeps dragging us down. 

http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/conrad/preface.htm

_NN_

Ostensibly, this is a yarn in which men are at sea,
there is a violent storm, the ship is in danger, the
crew must struggle to survive, and, finally, the ship
is returned to port. 

The men are isolated out at sea. The captain, while he
Shares (the tale has a bunch of doubles, secret
sharings)  the crews lot, is doubly isolated because
he is the captain, the leader, responsible for
command. We find this double Captain theme explored in
Pynchon's works, including Mason & Dixon, where, at
one point the reluctant and somewhat inept Mr. Mason
is the captain of the ship cutting its way through the
heart of darkest America. 

The task of the crew is to keep the boat afloat and to
so they will need to cooperate and follow command. In
M&D, even Dixon, the manic adventure seeker, a Quaker
suspicious of authority, must control himself when on
a ship. He is not permitted to whistle when aboard a
ship and  recognizing the common sense of this rule he
abstains. As soon as he is on land he goes in search
of adventure, whistling while he lusts. But "good
service" as Conrad called it, is not easily maintained
on a ship when things fall apart or when men paranoid
or when even one member of the crew is become a 
burden that threatens to break solidarity or when the
crew is suspicious of the Captain's motives, has lost
confidence in his ability to lead, or has become
cynical about power and how it is abused.  Who can
forget Blinky? The obstreperous lad pressed into
service aboard the Seahorse who tells the Captain that
he's got a good job, don't fuck it up. Or Pig Bodine?
Always AWOL. 


Pynchon likes sea stories. He was in the navy. And, I
read someplace, maybe it was here I can't remember,
that Pynchon read all of Conrad. He certainly read his
share of sea stories.  Pynchon explores the problems
of solidarity and leadership in M&D's sea chapters. He
explores, as Conrad does, as Melville does, as so many
great sea stories do, sometimes ironically,  issues of
power and solidarity, "diving deep" (as Melville says)
into the collective consciousness and relations of men
from disparate lands and diverse backgrounds gathered
on a stage or microcosm of the world at sea.  

In _NN_ the black sailor is, as Conrad says, the
center of the ship's collective psychology," and the
axis upon which the conflict and the action of the
yarn spins. Remember in M&D how the ship is almost
like the first scene in Hamlet, upside-down, unhinged.
There is no Captain in the forecastle and those that
should not be there are. 
Conrad writes, "A Negro in the British Forecastle is a
lonely being." Lonely because he has not friend in the
world or ship. But the tale is not a racist tale. At
least I don't think it is. And it is not only a tale
about racial discrimination. Although it certainly is
that. The Nigger, I think, is a story that those that
accuse Conrad of racism have probably never read. Just
as one should not whistle on a ship, one should not be
named WAIT on a ship. But that is the Negro's name. 

I'll stop for now and think about sending more on
Conrad,  Influence and Anxiety.  



 




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